Gambling
A large variety of casino games are offered in Las Vegas from Slot Machines to Video Poker; Sports betting to Bingo. Age Restrictions The minimum age of gambling in Nevada is 21 and the law is strictly enforced. Casinos can be fined heavily by the state or have their license revoked for allowing anyone under age 21 to gamble or loiter in gaming areas. Adults cannot play Slot Machines with kids looking over their shoulder, nor can they park infants in strollers beside slot machines or Table Games. Security guards will inform violators of the state law one time and escort them from the premises for repeatedly ignoring warnings. If a minor should win a jackpot, the casino will NOT pay it, according to state law. It is wise to have a valid ID when playing. If you should win a jackpot of $1,200 or more, the casino may ask to see your social security card. Most casinos offer a slot or player's club and some casinos offer free, informal gambling classes. Gambling Lawsuits In 1987, a 19-year-old boy won a slot jackpot of more than $1 million at Caesars Palace. The boy's family lost a lawsuit, pursued through a federal appeals court, to keep the prize. Caesars wasn't fined for allowing the boy to gamble. I. Nelson Rose, a California-based attorney and gaming expert who represented the family, argued in court that the boy and other children were gambling because the property had no economic incentive to refuse them. "Caesars had this unwritten rule that if a kid won $5,000 they'd pay the kid and kick him out, and if it was over $5,000 they'd keep the money and kick the kid out," Rose said. "Either way, they weren't being fined. The Gaming Control Board was leaving that decision (about how to handle kids) up to the casinos." -- Los Angeles attorney and gambler Ernest Joseph Franceschi Jr. has sued MGM MIRAGE, accusing casino officials of ejecting him in 2003 after he won thousands of dollars at the company's New York-New York casino playing blackjack. He sued MGM and its casinos in Los Angeles Superior Court for invasion of privacy, defamation and allegedly violating California's unfair business practices laws. The complaint says casino officials photographed Franceschi while he played high-stakes blackjack and circulated the photo to other Las Vegas casinos after he left the table with his winnings. When he returned later to resume playing, casino officials escorted him out of the property and said he was barred for life from MGM MIRAGE casinos, the suit said. Franseschi, who describes himself in the lawsuit as a "better than average blackjack player," said he was ejected from three other Vegas casinos on the same day within minutes of sitting down at the blackjack tables. Franceschi is requesting $74,000 in damages and is asking a judge to require the company to include a disclaimer in its California advertising warning gamblers that they can be barred for winning. An MGM spokesman said, "This lawsuit has no merit and we are confident we will prevail." Source: Las Vegas Sun, "Attorney sues Las Vegas casino over ejection" March 3, 2004. -- The Las Vegas Sun reported that a California man is suing the Las Vegas Hilton and the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino claiming the casinos were at fault when they allowed him to gamble away over a million dollars when he was intoxicated. In his suit, Stephen Roel claims he had been a customer of the Las Vegas Hilton for 15 years and during a weekend in September the Hilton paid for his roundtrip airfare, food, beverages and lodging in exchange for his gambling at the casino. He is considered a skilled player and has a credit line of $50,000. The lawsuit states that over the weekend of Sept 29th Roel was drinking heavily and after losing $117,000, the Hilton casino executives extended him an additional line of credit for $840,000, despite the fact that the executives should have known he was drunk. The suit also claims that someone at the Mandalay Bay arranged for Raol to stay there the same weekend. He was extended a credit line of over $100,000, despite the fact that he was drunk. It is claimed that the executives continued to give him credit after his wife and sister flew in and asked them not to accept his bets. Mr. Raol has entered a treatment center since that weekend and is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, recovery of the money he bet that weekend and forgiveness of the debts. -- Hollywood producer Jamie Gold won the $12 million first prize in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event August 10, 2006 in a field of 8,773 players. An acquaintance of Gold, Crispin Leyser, surfaced shortly after the WSOP ended and went to court in Las Vegas asserting that Gold reneged on a deal they had to split evenly any money that Gold won in the Main Event. Leyser said the pact was made after bodog.com offered one seat in the world championship, valued at $10,000, if either of them would line up celebrities to play under the Bodog banner. Leyser said he recruited actors Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepherd to play in the tournament and Bodog awarded a free seat to Gold, placing them in contention as 50/50 partners. Such side deals among poker players are not uncommon. Clark Co. District Judge Kathy Hardcaste froze a portion of the prize money August 22 pending future court proceedings.